Plug-and-play Dawson gets belated chance to make his case
What do the following players have in common: Moeen Ali, Mason Crane, Jack Leach, Dom Bess, Adil Rashid, Matt Parkinson, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir? The answer is that between Liam Dawson’s third Test cap (eight years ago) and his fourth (against India on Wednesday), England have picked all 11 as spinners ahead of him.
Dawson’s recall, aged 35, is so ordinary as to be extraordinary. England have spent the last three years talking about attributes and upside while trying to fashion Test-match spin bowlers out of T20 allrounders and the rawest of rookies. Now, they have settled for pragmatism, with the recall of a seasoned professional who has become the County Championship’s most valuable player.
Dawson has long been a solid performer for Hampshire but has reached new heights in his mid-30s. He has scored seven centuries and taken 10 five-fors in the last two-and-a-half Championship seasons, averaging 47.59 with the bat and 25.63 with the ball: “He’s been a huge player for us,” Adi Birrell, Hampshire’s coach, told ESPNcricinfo. “He’s actually got better and better, too.”
His comeback is a fillip for county cricket, as was his decision to prioritise playing for Hampshire ahead of the Pakistan Super League in the spring. “It goes to show that if you consistently perform, the door will open at some stage,” Birrell said. “It shows that there is still the option of being [picked as] a county stalwart. It is great that England have selected him.”
It is even more remarkable given his apparent breakdown in relations with England’s management. Dawson was frustrated – understandably so – by England’s miscommunication in 2023: “Luke Wright basically told me I was going to go to the World Cup, and to get a little bit fitter,” he explained to the Analyst podcast. “And I received a call the next day to say that I wasn’t going.”
He was then overlooked for the Test tour to India, which enabled him to play in the SA20 instead. Dawson had been a regular in international squads for years but rarely played, including during their triumphant 2019 World Cup campaign; once the novelty had worn off, it made little sense for a player who has never held a central contract to sacrifice significant franchise deals just to pick up a tour fee as England’s 12th man.
Dawson admitted last year that Test cricket was “completely off the radar” for him, and said that he was at peace with the likely end of his international career: “It’s not something that I want to be doing, running drinks, at my age.” Now, he is not only back in the Test team, but likely to play a significant role at next year’s T20 World Cup. In that sense, his recall is a win for player power.
Dawson’s comeback for June’s T20I series against West Indies has proven to be a soft launch for his Test comeback: he took 4 for 20 on his return, and left a positive impression on Brendon McCullum and Harry Brook, his coach and captain. “He’s a wily, old fox,” Brook said this week. “He’s willing to always fight for the team, he’s very competitive, and it’s good to have him here.”
It was instructive that Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, picked out that same attribute as one of his strengths. “I’ve known Daws for a long time. I know the cricketer he is, but what does go under the radar is his competitiveness,” he said on Tuesday, as well as citing the relevance of Dawson’s white-ball return under McCullum: “He showed he can come back in and get to work straightaway.”
Birrell believes that Dawson has become a more complete bowler since Graeme Welch’s appointment as Hampshire’s bowling coach, challenging both edges of the bat. “They’ve worked very well together,” he says. “He used to undercut it, but now he’s getting better at overspin… He bowls an off-stump line: one slides, one turns, so he’s got all dismissals available to him.”
A 5ft 8in left-armer, he could hardly be more different in profile to the 6ft 4in offspinner he is replacing in Bashir. Brook believes Dawson should have some footholes to work with outside the left-handers’ off stump, but Ravindra Jadeja’s returns for the series – 3 for 331 across 99 overs – should prompt a level of caution as to how much can be expected from him.
He also comes into this Test on the back of six T20 Blast games for Hampshire, and bowls very differently between formats. “In T20, I try to drag my length back by two, three or four feet and bowl short,” he told the Bowlers’ Union podcast last year. “It’s probably the biggest thing I struggle with in my career, chopping and changing formats, especially going from white-ball to red-ball.”
But his defensive skills may yet come in useful if India look to take him on – as Rishabh Pant surely will – and his batting should ensure that he adds value across disciplines. He made a half-century on Test debut in Chennai back in 2016 and has centuries for Hampshire in every position from opener to No. 7; in fact, his first-class average (35.29) compares favourably to that of Zak Crawley (31.90).
As such, he is the ultimate plug-and-play pick, a selection based not on philosophy but practicality. Dawson has already jumped ahead of two England-contracted spinners in Leach and Rehan to be selected in Manchester. Now, he has the chance to show that he is not just a fill-in for Bashir, but a compelling alternative to him.